On Wednesday July 17th, the three main Release Candidate channels received the following updates: individual updates:

Magnum became the RC with the server-side baking / appearance project enabled (SSB/A is disabled on LeTigre). This move was made to expose SSB/A to a larger number of regions and a larger number of users as a result

BlueSteel received a further package of under-the-hood changes related to the experience tools

LeTigre received a new server maintenance project, which included fixes for several issues, including a further updated for pathfinding characters using CHARACTER_STAY_WITHIN_PARCEL getting stuck if they somehow exited their home parcel. It also added “RenderMaterialsCapability” to the /simulator/features cap, which indicates the access rate allowed when accessing the “RenderMaterials” capability, and Increased the “RenderMaterials” capability access rate to 4 requests per second (up from 1).

SL Viewer Updates

Release Candidate Viewers & the Release Process

The first of the viewer Release Candidates became public on Thursday July 19th. This is a maintenance update (3.6.2.278602) with a number of individual fixes from LL’s viewer maintenance team.

While the actual order of release is not clear, it appears that the next Release Candidates which will be added to the viewer release channel will be:

Viewer Breakpad changes

The Vivox updates

A Snowstorm (code contributions) build.

Which of these RCs is promoted to be the defacto release viewer will be depend upon a number of factors, including how well each performs as a release candidate (in terms of performance, crash rate, etc.).

Because Release Candidates are “cohorts” within the viewer release channel, you cannot download them as a distinct viewer installer package via the Official Alternate Viewers wiki page. However, release candidates can be tracked (and the source code obtained by those interested in self-compiling viewers) from the Official Viewer Source Repository page.

To give some idea as to why the new process has been introduced, Simon Linden indicated there is around four months of viewer work currently backed-up and awaiting release. This may mean that initially, there might be a higher bumber of RC viewer cohorts in the release channel than will be the case once the backlog starts to clear.

I’ll be endeavouring to keep pace with official viewer updates, including cohorts, through my Viewer Round-up Page.

Settings.xml

The plan to use a single settings.xml file for all installed versions of the SL viewer is currently dependent upon a snowstorm code contribution which is currently in the pipeline. Once this has been implemented within the viewer code, it should help eliminate problems of users on the SL viewer reporting their settings have been “eaten” / overwritten should they move between different versions of the official viewer (i.e. swapping between the release viewer and a project viewer and back again).

Group Ban List

Baker Linden continues to work on the group ban list project (see JIRA VWR-29337). The last time he was available for an update at the Simulator User Group on Tuesday July 10th, he indicated that he was working on the back-end code, which required a lot of refactoring and which he was hoping to get finished by the end of week 28 prior to moving to the viewer-side code.

Speaking on his behalf at the Server Beta meeting on Thursday July 18th, Simon indicated that Baker may have achieved his goal, and is now working on the viewer side of things and the UI.

Experience Tools

Again, no major news here. The server-side updates (which presumably include the long-awaited permissions system updates) continue to reach RC channels, but there is no news on the viewer-side updates which are expected to be appearing in a project viewer at some point in the (hopefully) near future.

SL Tutorials

Jan 21, 10:20 PSTResolved - This matter has been resolved. Thank you for your patience!Jan 19, 13:42 PSTInvestigating - Some residents may currently have difficulty accessing my.secondlife.com - this issue is under investigation, and we will provide further updates here when we have more information.

Jan 21, 06:00 PSTIn progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.Jan 16, 10:49 PSTScheduled - Concierge Chat Support and Concierge and Billing Phone Support will be unavailable on Monday, January 21st. Ticket submissions will still be available at this time.

Flickr Photos

Disclaimer

This blog is Creative Commons - Attribution - NonCommercial - Share Alike. You are free to share/repost/include material in this blog part or in whole in electronic and/or printed format, providing: full and correct attribution is given; doing so is not done for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you will distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar licence to this one.

Statements made within comments submitted to this blog represent the views and opinions of those authoring them, and should not be taken as being indicative of this blog author's beliefs / opinion / view. Nor should the appearance of any comments following articles within this blog be taken as any endorsement of the opinion / views / beliefs stated within those comments on the part of the blog author.

Links from this blog to other websites or internet locations are offered as a convenience only. No warranty, express or implied, nor any legal liability is assumed for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, product, or service offered at or through such linked sites or for any consequences arising from the use or access of such links.

Copyrights and trademarks belonging to these entities are duly acknowledged when referring products and platform operated by these entities. No attempt to infringe on any such copyright or trademarks are intended within the articles and reviews published in this blog.

This blog is neither affiliated with, nor sponsored by, any of the above organisations.